Diary of an emigrant

Sunday, March 16, 2008

MFI in Brasil?

Naice and I have just finished putting together the most appalling piece of cheap MDF/chipboard/hardboard bedside cabinet I've seen since the 1970s (or rather, that I've been told about - I'm much too young to remember personally). True, it came with the correct amount of screws and nails (nails, hmm..), which technically elevates it above 1970's MFI standards, but then it had a marked absence of pre-drilled holes, which puts it right back down there again. And of course the diagrams were made for the little men in blue coats who designed the thing in the first place, and to whom no doubt it is quite obvious where everything should go. But for we of the great unwashed, it's a case of 'guess where this nail goes?'.

Yes. Nails. Around the back of the unit, where presumably no-one is supposed to look once the thing is backed up against a wall, there is clearly no need for either any finish, or any screws. Just raw chipboard/hardboard full of nails. However I'm pleased to report that previous experience stood us in good stead and when we'd finished, all that was left over were 5 nails. The drawers were almost square and there was barely a wobble from it. It now has pride of place in the double en-suite. The wardrobe I put together, on the other hand, is in the twin en-suite, screwed to the wall for extra support and from where it will never be moved in case it completely collapses. I think a picture of the latest effort is warranted, don't you...?